Puerto Rico Is Sowing A New Generation Of Small Farmers

Puerto Rico Is Sowing A New Generation Of Small Farmers

Dalma Cartagena teaches a class on agricultural science to elementary-school students in Orocovis, Puerto Rico. "I'm preparing them to make good decisions when it comes to the environment and healthy foods," she says.

Dalma Cartagena teaches a class on agricultural science to elementary-school students in Orocovis, Puerto Rico. "I'm preparing them to make good decisions when it comes to the environment and healthy foods," she says.

Roberto Diaz and Manuel Vasquez prepare croquettes made from green bananas and quinoa in the kitchen of El Departamento de la Comida, a farmers market and restaurant in San Juan.

Marisa Penaloza / NPR

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Although it's a tropical island, perhaps surprisingly, Puerto Rico produces very little of its own food. After decades of industrialization, the U.S. territory imports more than 80 percent of what's consumed on the island. There are signs, though, the trend is changing.

One place you can see it is in Orocovis, a small town in Puerto Rico's mountainous interior. At an elementary school there, Dalma Cartagena has for 15 years tended the seeds of an agricultural movement. Cartagena teaches agricultural science. It's a special curriculum she developed that teaches children, from the third to the eighth grade, how to grow their own food.

Cartagena's students plant lettuce, radishes, beans and other crops that grow quickly and can be harvested during the school year.

Greg Allen/NPR

On one recent morning, her fourth-grade class was getting ready to transplant small lettuce plants into the garden. Before heading outside, she quizzes her students in the classroom. "When we don't have compost, what do we use?" Cartagena asks. "Manure," her students answer in a matter-of-fact way.

Cartagena's students grab shovels and hoes and go to work in the school's garden. There are banana trees along with rows of lettuce, beans and radishes. Cartagena shows them how to add a little compost with each plant they put in the ground. She's teaching her students a community-based, sustainable approach to food production.

It's part of a new way of thinking about agriculture in Puerto Rico. For decades after World War II, the island turned away from farming, as urbanization and factories transformed the economy. In food production, as in so many things, Puerto Rico looked to the mainland, importing things like rice, vegetables and beef.

At the same time, the island's agriculture secretary, Myrna Comas Pagan, says Puerto Ricans pushed their children away from the farms. In her office in San Juan, Comas tells us that parents would tell their children: "If you want to be a prosperous man, you will need to study medicine or engineering. Agriculture is for people that don't have anything to do."

Since being appointed secretary, Comas has made it her mission to improve Puerto Rico's food security. She wants to increase agricultural production, so the island can sustain itself after a natural disaster or other events that could make imported food expensive or unavailable.

Puerto Rico's government provided farmers some $13 million in subsidies in the past two years, paying for everything from equipment to hourly wages. Comas says it's creating jobs and bringing new income to the island's economy.

But there's also a grass-roots effort underway in Puerto Rico. El Departamento de la Comida sounds like a government agency — the Department of Food. But it's a restaurant and market in San Juan that features produce from a growing network of small farmers on the island.

El Departamento is owned and run by Tara Rodriguez Besosa, who originally trained as an architect. Now in her early 30s, she says she first waded into the food business several years ago. She began by selling her mom's organic produce at a San Juan farmers market, "setting up a little table area and selling every Tuesday afternoon," she recalls. "That's really how it started."

Many of those getting into farming and food production in Puerto Rico are young entrepreneurs like Rodriguez who are making their own opportunities in a troubled economy. But Rodriguez says there's still a stigma attached to farming as a poor man's occupation, a job for a jibaro, an island term for a rural peasant. She says in Puerto Rico: "Jibaro has been a term a lot of people use in a condescending way. So it's like when you call someone a jibaro, it's like in some sense of the word ignorant.

Roberto Diaz and Manuel Vasquez prepare croquettes made from green bananas and quinoa in the kitchen of El Departamento de la Comida, a farmers market and restaurant in San Juan.

Marisa Penaloza/NPR

Organic farmer Ricky Cruz Ortiz doesn't worry about being called a jibaro. He studied engineering and later went back to college for a degree in horticulture. He raises vegetables, greens and herbs, and he supplies some of San Juan's top restaurants. "I'm seeing more and more young people interested in agriculture, and even more in organic agriculture," he says. "I think that people are yearning for contact with the land."

If these trends continue, Agriculture Secretary Myrna Comas believes Puerto Rico may double its food production within a decade.

If so, Dalma Cartagena and the children in her classes in Orocovis deserve some of the credit. Of her students, Cartagena says: "Of course, I hope they work in agriculture eventually. At some point, I asked myself if I was just training laborers, farmers. But in reality, I'm preparing them to make good decisions when it comes to the environment and healthy foods."

Cartagena says other schools have adopted her curriculum and are now teaching kids about the land and growing their own food. She's part of a movement to make the island self-sufficient and rebuild Puerto Rico's agricultural industry.

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Puerto Rico is a tropical island, but it produces very little of its own food. After decades of industrialization, the U.S. territory imports more than 80 percent of what's consumed on the island. There are signs that that's changing. NPR's Greg Allen spent time in Puerto Rico talking with people about the island's growing interest in producing and buying local.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: The town of Orocovis is in Puerto Rico's mountainous interior, a two-hour drive from San Juan on the island's coast. But at a small school here, for 15 years, Dalma Cartagena has tended the seeds of an agricultural movement.

ALLEN: Cartagena teaches agricultural science. It's a special curriculum she developed that teaches children from the third to the eighth grade how to grow their own food. This fourth-grade class is getting ready to transplant small lettuce plants into the garden.

ALLEN: When we don't have compost, what do we use, Cartagena asks. Manure, her students say.

(SOUNDBITE OF SHOVELING)

CARTAGENA: (Speaking Spanish) Un poquito de composta.

ALLEN: Outside, Cartagena's students grab shovels and hoes and go to work in the school's garden. She shows them how to add a little compost with each plant. Cartagena is teaching her students a community-based, sustainable approach to food production. It's part of a new way of thinking about agriculture in Puerto Rico.

For decades after World War II, the island turned away from farming as urbanization and factories transformed the economy. In food production, as in so many things, Puerto Rico looked to the mainland, importing things like rice, vegetables and beef. At the same time, the island's agricultural secretary, Myrna Comas Pagan, says Puerto Ricans push their children away from the farms.

MYRNA COMAS PAGAN: They say if you want to be a prosperous man, you will need to study medicine or engineering. Agriculture is for people that don't have anything to do.

ALLEN: Since being appointed secretary, Comas has made it her mission to improve Puerto Rico's food security. She wants to increase agricultural production, so the island can sustain itself after a natural disaster or other events that could make imported food expensive or unavailable.

But there's also a grassroots effort underway in Puerto Rico.

(SOUNDBITE OF WALK-IN REFRIGERATOR OPENING)

ALLEN: You can see it in the walk-in refrigerator at a market and restaurant in San Juan - El Departamento de la Comida - the department of food.

ALLEN: Paxx Moll, head cook at El Departamento, says it's all organic and produced by a growing network of small farmers on the island. Owner Tara Rodriguez Besosa is an architect in her early 30s who got into the business several years ago selling her mom's organic produce at a San Juan farmers market.

TARA RODRIGUEZ BESOSA: Setting up a little table area and selling every Tuesday afternoon - that's really how it started.

ALLEN: Many of those getting into farming and food production in Puerto Rico are young entrepreneurs like Rodriguez who are making their own opportunities in a troubled economy. But, she says, there's still a stigma attached to farming as a poor man's occupation - a job for a jibaro.

BESOSA: Jibaro has been a term that a lot of people use in a condescending way. So it's like when you call someone a jibaro it's like in some sense of the word ignorant.

ALLEN: Organic farmer Ricky Cruz Ortiz says he doesn't worry about being called a jibaro. He studied engineering and later went back to college for a degree in horticulture. He raises vegetables, greens and herbs and supplies some of San Juan's top restaurants.

RICKY CRUZ ORTIZ: (Speaking Spanish, through interpreter) I'm seeing more and more young people interested in agriculture, and even more with organic agriculture. I think that people are yearning for contact with the land.

ALLEN: If trends continue, Agriculture Secretary Myrna Comas believes Puerto Rico may double its food production within a decade. If so, Dalma Cartagena and the children in her classes in Orocovis deserve some of the credit.

CARTAGENA: (Speaking Spanish) Si, claro que esperamos que...

ALLEN: "Of course," she says, "I hope they work in agriculture eventually. At some point, I asked myself if I was just training laborers, farmers. But in reality, I'm preparing them to make good decisions when it comes to the environment and healthy foods."

CARTAGENA: (Speaking Spanish) Un poquito mas lejo.

ALLEN: Cartagena says other schools have adopted her curriculum and are now teaching kids about the land and growing their own food. She's part of a movement, one to make the island self-sufficient and reclaim Puerto Rico's agricultural traditions. Greg Allen, NPR News, Orocovis, Puerto Rico.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BLOCK: And it's not just food, Puerto Rico also imports nearly all of its fuel for generating energy. Power costs more there than in any state except Hawaii. Tomorrow on Morning Edition, Greg explains how energy has helped create an economic crisis in Puerto Rico. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.